Hello Gig Performer Community,
I’m new to Gig Performer and I love it.
Now comes my first question
I want to load a song in MobileSheets via a song in Gig Performer. That works so far. To do this, I use “send program change number when song activates” in the song properties. I use this to send the PC, LSB and MSB to mobile sheets, which then often switches to the song there. Now it often happens that it doesn’t work. Then I open the Song Properties dialog and close it again so that Gig Performer sends the midi command again, then the song also loads correctly in mobile sheets.
Can anyone tell me what the problem might be?
According to the midi monitor, it always sends the program change commands correctly, but it does not switch to the song in mobile sheets.
FYI:
I have assigned the same PC,MSB,LSB values to the song part.
I use Gig Performer on the Mac and IAC for MIDI transmission in only one direction.
I had already considered sending the program change command again if the switch to mobile sheets didn’t work. But I don’t know how to do that via a widget.
I hope I have explained it clearly…
Is there a way to get a summary of the Actions? Also, it would be nice if there was an indicator on the Song Part in the Setlist View that shows that there is an Action present. Finally, the use of Actions, rather than direct assignments isn’t obvious. I would not have guessed it, were it not for this post.
Ideally, the direct “Assign program change number for this song part” would be the right method. (I assume that there is a historical, backwards compatibility reason that makes Actions preferred.) The old method was obvious to the new user and created an indication in the Setlist View, including the number. It was great from a UI perspective.
With Actions, I find that I need to manage a list of songs and program change assignments manually. It’s not ideal. If there were a View Action Summary page (or some other programmatic solution), I wouldn’t need to manage my own list, and it would reduce the possibility of human error.
(Similarly, it would be nice if I could get a summary of songs and PC assignments in the Mobile Sheets app. In their current UI, if I want to find the PC assignments, it’s multiple button presses per song.)
I’ll avoid proposing a solution. The Use Case is that I create a new Song, and I want it associated with a unique PC, preferably the next available number. I need to know this number, so I can assign the same number in Mobile Sheets. Later, I should be able to quickly confirm that the Song has a PC number and see what it is. The method should be reasonably obvious to a new user.
If there is something I’m missing, please let me know. Thanks!
Let’s say I have 50 songs. What is the next, unused PC? Did I accidentally set two songs to the same value? Did I forget to add a PC action to one of the songs? Did I accidentally have a different PC number to a different song part?
To review an action list for one song takes a double click and three more clicks to see the actions and close the dialogues. To do this for every song would be tedious, let alone for every song part.
I would envision a single, plain text menu with a list of songs, parts, and actions, accessible from the View or Window menu. A full list of actions (not just PCs) could be helpful in troubleshooting weird behavior. I might have added an action that was long forgotten.
But frankly, the original method of assigning PC numbers was great. I can just look at the set list view and see the bank and PC numbers at a glance. It’s not just quick, but I can see their presence. The actions are obscured, unless we look for them one by one. If nothing else, there should be an “A:1” or something on a given song part to indicate that one action is present.
For now, I keep a spreadsheet, and I use a numbering convention in my All Songs set list. So, there’s nothing urgent here. But if I ever make a human error with the actions, troubleshooting could be a challenge.
The main reason why I try to avoid relying on actions anywhere, they are hard to trace.
Another one, not related to this topic, is that actions are sometimes setlist/gig dependent, I don’t want to copy them together with the song. I might want a different PC in another setlist.
Sorry, but you’re both simply stating that you’re losing control of your own construct. We as users create complex constructs, and its our responsibility to manage them. If you find yourself regularly getting lost in your own designs, its a signal to simplify what you’re trying to do. "Man’s reach exceeds his grasp" is the phrase—which it should, but we have to accept and work within our own limits also.
GP is a live performance host, not a spreadsheet, cataloging, or archival application. I would much rather see energy and efforts continue in the areas of live performance rather than trying to be something that it’s not.
I didn’t say I was lost, I said I avoided using Actions (or anything that’s scattered all over the place and obscure) because they make it harder to trace.
Exactly because it’s a live performance host, the ability to debug stuff quickly is important, that’s why I think that current implementation of Actions can be improved, and the suggested list can be useful.
A menu? This would be huge. Do you want to be able to click on things?
Candidly, it would not be a big deal to create a “report” summarising everything but it would get really large if you have (a) lots of songs/song parts, never mind timeline actions, and (in the next major version) there will be actions tied to other things as well.
Would it be easier if you could just right-click on a song part directly and open the actions from there without having to go into the song part properties dialog first?
But you’re not talking about managing things.
You’re talking about GP managing things for you.
Why can’t you use your own spreadsheet to manage things?
Like I said earlier, if your own designs are too cumbersome for even you— what does that tell you?
The request was to be able to see the list of all actions, if I’m not mistaken, I certainly support the request. If I could have a way to see all of them is be much more comfortable using them. That’s all really.
Even if you got a report from GP on actions, as @dhj said, it could be huge and would only be effcient and useful if you could sort by the various field types like rackspace name, widget name etc.
